Review your emergency preparedness plans to ensure you have contingency plans for emergencies within an emergency, and drill staff on evacuating patients up or down stairwells.

The Joint Commission, which oversees accreditation of hospitals and other healthcare facilities, issued new and revised workplace violence standards that take effect January 1, 2022. The workplace violence prevention standards will apply to all Joint Commission-accredited hospitals and critical access hospitals. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and many states, along with private insurers, only reimburse services performed at healthcare facilities accredited by the Joint Commission or another accreditation organization.

The Fountain Valley, California-based MemorialCare health system has made significant progress in decreasing patient harm.

The nation’s hospitals continue to grapple with COVID-19, a pandemic that has strained staff and resources like never before. But even amid this ongoing public health emergency, it’s important to not forget—and to continue addressing—patient safety concerns that impact outcomes and costs. 

Foremost among patient safety issues are adverse drug events (ADE), which are responsible for 100,000 deaths every year and (before COVID-19) were estimated to be the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. ADEs impact 2 million hospital stays annually in the U.S. and prolong inpatient hospital stays by 1.7 to 4.6 days. 

Despite efforts to reduce adverse drug events and improve patient safety—including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) in-depth undertaking to create policies, value-based purchasing programs, and other financial incentives aimed at preventing hospital ADEs—the problem perseveres. The result is an increase of about $136 billion in annual U.S. healthcare costs, much of which could be avoided. 

Hospital pharmacies have their work cut out for them. They need to perform mission-critical responsibilities that enable both quality patient care and reliable operational continuity. 

There’s value to be found in the data related to hospital pharmacies, as well, but unlocking actionable analytics and insights from metrics reporting requires the right viewpoints and skill sets. Global medical technology company BD recently hosted a panel discussion inviting key pharmacy leaders and experts to talk about how analytics have impacted high-performing hospital pharmacy programs. 

“The financial performance of a hospital pharmacy department is a huge contributor to the overall bottom line of an organization,” said David Kvancz, MS, RPh, FASHP, senior vice president of Visante and the panel’s moderator. “In some cases it’s the equivalent of a mid- to large-sized company. It’s critical that we have the necessary data and analytics to move forward from a one-dimensional area” into something more expansive.